THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
This is the ultimate heist film and the template for all that came after — from the assembly of the team to the painstakingly chronicled break-in to the telltale slipup. John Huston's expertly orchestrated urban crime story is one of the rare noirs to attract Oscar® recognition, garnering four nominations. A crooked lawyer (Louis Calhern), desperate to keep his nubile mistress (Marilyn Monroe), employs a just-out-of-jail master thief (Sam Jaffe) and some small-timers (Sterling Hayden, Anthony Caruso and James Whitmore) for a big score. Everything is going right the night of the break-in — until everything starts to go wrong. DIR/SCR John Huston; SCR Ben Maddow, from the novel by W.R. Burnett; PROD Arthur Hornblow Jr. U.S., 1950, b&w, 112 min. NOT RATED
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) also screens as part of a Double Feature with SYMPHONY FOR A MASSACRE on Fri, Oct. 18 (introduced by Foster Hirsch) and Mon, Oct. 21. View details here.
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Opening Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Genre: Film noir